Management

Hamilton’s father and former manager Anthony expressed a clear view about the root of his son’s problems in the aftermath of the Singapore race:

“You look up and down the pit lane and every driver, except for Lewis [Hamilton], has a driver-manager in his life, not people from a company.

“I am sure his management are very good ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ I don?óÔé¼Ôäót know ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ but Formula 1 drivers need people personally involved in the driver?óÔé¼Ôäós life because it is a big pressure. They have got to be here and I don?óÔé¼Ôäót think you can do the job by sending someone else.”

The elder Hamilton obviously has a vested interest in making such remarks. But we shouldn’t be quick to dismiss them – Hamilton enjoyed his greatest successes in Formula 1 under his father’s management.

Anthony Hamilton now manages Paul di Resta

And his father’s new young charge, Paul di Resta, is clearly thriving, finished one place behind Hamilton in Singapore.

Hamilton is not the only driver without a conventional F1 management team. Sebastian Vettel doesn’t have one at all, and it clearly isn’t holding him back.

Hamilton has defended his right to pursue interests outside of Formula 1. Even so, it seems they are a more consuming part of his life than they are for his rivals at the sharp end of the grid.

Nor can it be said that his closest advisors have helped him handle his recent problems well: recall his notorious outburst at Monaco and his vanishing act last Sunday having failed to given an account of his latest blunder.

Button

Button celebrates victory in Canada

When Jenson Button joined McLaren at the beginning of last year, the widely-held view was that he was risking his reputation by joining ‘Hamilton’s team’.

Hamilton has never finished behind a team mate in the world championship. But Button has beaten him in all of the last four races. With five rounds to go he is 17 points ahead – a gap that would be far greater without his car problems in Britain and Germany.

Of course, Hamilton is no stranger to having a top-line driver in the other car. His F1 reputation was built on that stunning debut season alongside Fernando Alonso.

But while Hamilton has Button out-classed on Saturdays (10-4 this year, 13-6 last year), in the races it is increasingly a different matter.

As was expected before the season began, Button has usually been able to coax more life out of Pirelli’s soft rubber than Hamilton. This has clearly helped him in some races this year.

But there’s more to it than that. Like Hamilton, Button has had to make his way through the field at times this year, and has done so without falling into the traps his team mate has.

Mistakes

Button benefits as Hamilton hits Webber in Montreal

Whatever problem Hamilton is having, the result is a growing number of costly mistakes that have ruined his season.

In Canada, a race he could have won, he had two collisions in the space of four laps – one with Mark Webber followed by terminal contact with his team mate. He was also in the hunt for victory at Spa before colliding with Kamui Kobayashi.

On top of that are the detail mistakes: the wrong tyres and the spin in Hungary, not putting a banker lap in during qualifying in Monaco and so on.

These kind of mistakes are not a new feature in Hamilton’s driving. Even in his championship year he had that notorious collision with Kimi R?â?ñikk?â?Ânen in the Montreal pit lane, and copped another penalty in the following race by going off the track while passing Sebastian Vettel.

But of late the costly mistakes have far outweighed the command performances. Both his wins this year – in China and Germany – were from the top drawer. Those aside, there’s been little for Hamilton to cherish in 2011.

A single answer?

When trying to work out what’s going wrong between a driver’s brain and the steering wheel, it’s tempting to fall for single-line explanations: ‘his team mate’s rattled his cage’, ‘he can’t make the tyres work’.

The heart of the matter is rarely that simple or convenient. And there’s always much more going on beneath the surface than the glimpses on show at a race weekend.

There are enough worrying signs around Hamilton to conclude that something fundamental is amiss here. Are we looking at a driver whose team mate is putting him under pressure, who can’t make his racing car behave the way he wants it to – and perhaps doesn’t care about it quite as much as he should?

Whatever the root of the problem is, it threatens to turn the career of a driver who produced one of the greatest rookie performances ever seen, into a case study in squandered potential.

245 comments on What’s gone wrong for Lewis Hamilton in 2011?

Constantly having to deny rumours about getting married to his much older girlfriend can’t help his state of mind too much. I suspect that behind the scenes there is/has been more pressure on Hamilton here than is common knowledge.

Even as an Alonso fan I want to see Hamilton back on form; at least when he wins a race I usually feel that I’ve witnessed a worthy winner unlike the utterly hollow feeling I have seeing Vettel win yet another race from pole.

And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he upsets the Whitmarsh/Button/BBC love-in by finishing ahead of Button this season.

The problem with Lewis is that he believes he’s channeling the Late Ayrton Senna’s spirit in his racing. This would be fine if Lewis was indeed in same league as the late master but unfortunately he is simply not. There will never be another Ayrton Senna. If Lewis is serious about leaving his mark in the sport he would do very well instead to take a leaf or two out of the Alain Prost book of cerebral racing without overly abandoning the jaw droppingly blsitering natural speed that has come to define and deify in the eyes of his many fans.

The problem with Lewis is that he believes heâ€™s channeling the Late Ayrton Sennaâ€™s spirit in his racing. This would be fine if Lewis was indeed in same league as the late master but unfortunately he is simply not. There will never be another Ayrton Senna. If Lewis is serious about leaving his mark in the sport he would do very well instead to take a leaf or two out of the Alain Prost book of cerebral racing without overly abandoning the jaw droppingly blsitering natural speed that has come to define and deify him in the eyes of his many fans.

Lewis is simply the BEST in F1 right now. Vettel is NOT on his level (Vettel is probably in the same league as Button, Rosberg, Massa and the like).
Lewis’ only competition on the grid right is Alonso, whom he beat a rookie :-)